October 2009 update

2 pubs this month:

"My Father's Tzimmes, 1956" in Switched-on-Gutenberg
"Fragments from An Alzheimer's Journey" over at FragLit

Witnessing Alzheimer's: A Caregiver's View - Goodbye for now

I'll be reading at Hugo House with the Switched-on-Gutenberg contributors Thurs. Oct. 15th. We'll be in the cafe. 7:30 pm. You can get a bite to eat, have some wine and catch the readings from issues 14 "Science and Technology" and Issue 15 "Gains and Losses”. Guess which one I'm in.

Don't forget It's About Time Thurs night.

See you soon,
Esther

Sept. 2009 Updates

The It's About Time Writers Reading Series has its own blog now. We are also on facebook.

The Poeming the Silence blog is now activated.

See you soon,

Esther

Don't think he's not in there

previous updates at Witnessing Alzheimer's: A Caregiver's View

I'm lucky in rabbis

Witnessing Alzheimer's: A Caregiver's View

Keeping you posted

Abe update

It's About Time Writers Reading Series#239

Thursday, July 9, 2009
Time: 6:00pm - 7:45pm
Location: Ballard library
Street: 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.
City/Town: Seattle, WA

Authur Tulee, Jeff Encke, Jane Alynn + Laura McKee on The Writer's Craft

Laura McKee holds a B.A. in French and English from the University of Utah, and an M.F.A from the University of Washington. Her work has appeared in Rhino, Mid-American Review, Campbell’s Corner, Identity Theory, Konundrum, Cutbank, and Denver Quarterly. Her book, Uttermost Paradise Place, was chosen this year by Claudia Keelan for the APR Honickman 1st Book Prize and will be published in the fall. She works at Cornish College of the Arts.

Arthur Tulee was born and raised on the Yakama Indian Reservation and graduated from Washington State University in 1990, receiving a B.A. in English. He is currently living and working in the Seattle metropolitan area. He is excited to read all brand new material for this It's About Time.

Jane Alynn is a poet and fine-art photographer. Alynn’s first collection of poems, Threads & Dust, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2005. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, such as Calyx, Floating Bridge Review, The Pacific Review, Quercus Review, Manorborn, Snowy Egret, StringTown, and Switched-on Gutenberg, as well as in many anthologies. In 2004 she was awarded a William Stafford Award from Washington Poets Association. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and currently lives in Anacortes.

Jeff Encke taught writing and criticism at Columbia University for several years, serving as writer-in-residence for the Program in Narrative Medicine while completing his PhD in English in 2002. He now teaches literature at Richard Hugo House. His poems have appeared in or forthcoming from American Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Fence, Kenyon Review Online, Salt Hill, and Tarpaulin Sky, among others. In 2004, he published Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse, a series of love poems addressed to Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi war criminals printed on a deck of playing cards.

Music: for memory, healing & art's sake

June 5, 2009

Rosewood, Uncle Benny, Abe & Alzheimer's

It turns out I had early training in Alzheimer's care. I grew up with a mentally impaired and physically disabled uncle, whom I adored. He lived in an institution called Rosewood, actually the Rosewood State Training School for Boys, out Reisterstown Rd. in Owings Mill, Md., about an hour north of where the Helfgott and Altshul clans lived in Baltimore city.

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Is Art Betrayal?

It's a dangerous mission. You/could die out there. You /could go on forever. Tess Gallagher, Instructions to the Double

Frye Art Museum
Sunday, May 3, 2009

As soon as I go to the podium, I want Abe. In my mind, I leave, run to the nursing home to be with him. I don't belong in this space. Something is wrong. I'm supposed to talk about my poem Spouse as Home but I can't speak. I can't look at my notes. What I'm doing is unethical. My body tells me this.

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Beyond Forgetting: Poetry & Prose about Alzheimer's Disease - Reading at Frye Museum

May 3, 2009
2 pm

Frye Art Museum
704 Terry Avenue
Seattle, Washington
98104
(206) 622-9250

I'll be reading. Hope you can make it!
Tickets are free. Pick them up at the front desk

Beyond Forgetting is a unique collection of poetry and short prose about Alzheimer’s disease written by 100 contemporary writers—doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, family members —whose lives have been touched by this tragic disease. Through the transformative power of writing, their words enable the reader to move “beyond forgetting,” beyond the stereotypical portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease to honor the dignity of those afflicted. Published in spring 2009 by Kent State University Press as part of their Literature and Medicine series and with a foreword by poet Tess Gallagher, this anthology forms a richly textured, literary portrait encompassing the full range of the experience of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Frye is honored to host the first public reading from Beyond Forgetting. Readers are poet Tess Gallagher, editor/poet Holly Hughes, and contributors Jane Alynn, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Joanne Clarkson, Nancy Dahlberg, John Davis, Alice Derry, Arthur Ginsberg, Joseph Green, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Denise Calvetti Michaels, and Kay Mullen. The book will be available for purchase at the event.
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Alzheimer Node

My blog today is the result of Poetry through the Ages
If you haven't seen it, give a click, especially the node section.